The countdown on the Roberts Space Industries Website has concluded, and we have word that Star Citizen as the new game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, which will indeed be a new PC-only space combat simulation. The game will be crowd funded through a link on the website, though at the moment this is still asking for a login from their whole viral countdown dealie (enter "42"). Word is that the game has been in development at Robert's LA-based Cloud Imperium Games for the past year, and while it will not be complete for another couple of years, they intend to have a playable version in the hands of their backers in about a year. Here's the Announcement Trailer and here's word:

Chris Roberts, who helped define the space sim genre in computer games during the 1990s with his Wing Commander® and Privateer® franchises, is back in the cockpit again with a new title he says will change the way people perceive games for the PC and will breathe new life into space combat games. The new game, Star Citizen™, was officially announced today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online taking place at the Austin Convention Center. The game is being developed by Roberts’ Cloud Imperium™ Games studio, located in Los Angeles.

Roberts’ re-entry into gaming comes after he spent more than a decade as a director and producer in the Hollywood film industry. In 1990, he introduced Wing Commander to the world of PC gaming and the franchise went on to sell millions of units and spawned multiple sequels, a feature film and another highly successful game franchise, Privateer.

Star Citizen, already 12 months into production, will be launched on the PC and will include all the Chris Roberts hallmarks that fans of his games have come to expect over the years: high quality cutting-edge visuals and technology, a virtual world that is immersive and detailed, a sophisticated storyline that is wide in scope and visceral, heart-pounding space combat.

“In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” says Roberts. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.

“There is a lot of noise out there regarding social and mobile games right now, and I think PC gamers are feeling a little left out of the mix. But the PC is still incredibly capable of presenting an experience that doesn’t take a back seat to any other platform out there, including consoles. With my game, I want PC gamers to stand up, be counted and get excited again about all the great experiences their computer can deliver.”

At GDC Online Roberts also announced a program to bring his devotees and other interested parties much closer to the development process. A crowd funding site has been posted at www.robertsspaceindustries.com to help raise the necessary funds for completing development of the project. “Our purpose today,” said Roberts, “is to allow our fans to join us in this process early. It will likely be another two years before the full product is ready for release, but early backers will be able to play a version of the game a year from now.

“We are taking this approach to fund-raising for several reasons,” said Roberts. “For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game. Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past. Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game.”

Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either. Roberts says the game will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

Creston wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 11:12:You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.

I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)

Creston

That's true if you want to severely restrict your gameplaying experience. The amount of money you can make trading as an individual is miniscule next to the amount you can make by setting up a bunch of UTs. And that is dwarfed by the amount you can make by setting up some complexes. Which wouldn't be important, if it weren't for the huge cost of the bigger ships.

Not to mention the missions requiring more amounts of materials than even exist in the game at any one time. Or the ones that require you to have a decent class ship in order to have any chance of surviving them.

But even leaving all that aside, the game isn't balanced in that direction. In order to be a trader, you need to have a ship that makes it worth it, which means you're going to be in one of the TS class ships. You can fight for shit in those, which means any time you get jumped by pirates, you're dead. Or you can fly in a fighter, but then you can't do any trading because the cargo hold is too small. The recent X games have all been based around having multiple ships. That's not a problem, but it makes it less enjoyable for people who like the single ship style of game.

And yes, I know Rebirth is moving back to that style. I'm hoping they can pull it off well.

BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.

Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.

You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.

I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)

Creston

Was gonna mention that, but figured hes got the hate on so why bother. It's one thing I noticed about TC and I like it, spent a great deal early on just doing protect station and sector patrol missions, was a blast. Of course once my rating got too high I had to quit because I was getting waaay outclassed and outgunned, my little sabre just coudlnt cut it anymore.

Heh in my game a couple of Xenon frigates, Q and a PX, were really giving me a hard time in Split space... damn Q had me holed up in a station for over two hours before a window opened for me to bug out. Well last night I finally cashed up enough to loadout my Vidor that I got playing the Terran missions, paid those Xenon MF'rs a visit

No exploration lol, I'm over 80 hours in and I doubt I've discovered half the sectors, and I went on a tear with a scout trying to find a place to buy a jumpdrive.

PS Ya saw that you were only going to have one ship in Rebirth, sounds like they are going the MassEffect route. Kinda bummed about that. I really like working my way up until your finally standing on the bridge of your capital ship.

BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.

Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.

You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.

I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)

Creston

You can play that way in X, except it sucks. There's no incentive to upgrade your ship/weapons. If you do so, the enemies become stronger. If you never do it, enemies stay weak. That's a joke. Also, theres NO exploration. Every sector is the same, but it has a different look and the stations are at different areas... Freelancer had real exploration and progression.

BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.

Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.

You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.

I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)

BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.

Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.

My favorite Space sim was IWar2 : Edge of chaos. Playing that with my MS SW FFB 2 joystick was awesome. Great story, great flight model, piracy, trading. A modern version of that would do me fine.

I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.

ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 21:20:Never played elite. It looks unplayably old. I don't think that mods can fix what I hate about the X games. I should check. Also, have you tried Black Prophecy? The combat is awesome. There's nothing else tho...

You've never played Elite?!? My God, man! lol...No, really, it's not as bad as it looks. It takes like an hour or so to get used to the control system and about another week or two to get used to the whole Newtonian physics/real-time orbital motion-thing...seriously, I've lifted off from a spaceport (on the planet itself), gotten up to a good altitude and just sat there in orbit and watched the space-station go by, the planet spin beneath me, the systems star come into sight and then go behind the planet...you have to put the time compression up a tick or two but it really is quite a sight! And when you have the new graphics, it makes it SO much better. Check out some of those pictures I linked. Some are as good as any space-sim out now, just as detailed w/bump mapping and everything. If landing on planets is the problem you have with X, then Frontier Elite has it covered in spades! And it's a procedural generated universe and it's HUGE! Not just little boxy sectors like X (which, I admit, are kind of annoying but I don't think about it much), everything is real life distances and time. You have to have the fuel, the funds and hopefully the luck not run into any pirates or raiders. If you 'blind jump' to get away, who knows where you might end up! Really, give it a chance. If you don't like it, well, then you don't like it. But at least you tried it.

I downloaded Black Prophecy a long time ago but never installed it. I heard so many mixed reviews and opinions that with all the other releases I just didn't have the time to try it. I still have the files though so I might give it a try finally...Tell you what, I'll try BP if you try Frontier Elite...sound fair?

=-Rigs-=

'Now, we gave you a promise and we are bound by that promise and damn you for asking for it! And damn me for agreeing to it! And damn all of us to Hell because that is exactly where we're going!'

I actually don't care that much about graphics or real physics. What I care about is actual exploration, a living universe and rewarding progression.

As do I, but at the moment we're limited to only a handful of sims - X, Evochron, and whatever Mr. Derek Smartypants is scheming with this month. And out of those, I'll take X any day of the week...including Sunday. The series has progressed so far since it's early beginnings and with the mods that have been released, it's about as good as you're going to get until something revolutionary comes along. Is Star Citizen it? I have no idea and no one else does either. I certainly hope so and I hope that it succeeds well enough to make other publishers and dev studios sit up and take notice that there IS room for space-sims in this industry. If there can be a frackin' street-sweeping simulation, there can be kick-ass, open-world Elite-style space trading combat sims...

And speaking of Elite, you all are aware that there is a kick-ass patch/mod for Elite3 that brings it's graphics engine into the modern era, right? Just look for D3D Frontier Elite (FED3D) and the Java version also. I've been playing it on and off for months and it's just SO much better than the original graphics-wise plus there's a mod-loader app with many mods for it as well. Check it out if you itching for something else...

Never played elite. It looks unplayably old. I don't think that mods can fix what I hate about the X games. I should check. Also, have you tried Black Prophecy? The combat is awesome. There's nothing else tho...

I actually don't care that much about graphics or real physics. What I care about is actual exploration, a living universe and rewarding progression.

As do I, but at the moment we're limited to only a handful of sims - X, Evochron, and whatever Mr. Derek Smartypants is scheming with this month. And out of those, I'll take X any day of the week...including Sunday. The series has progressed so far since it's early beginnings and with the mods that have been released, it's about as good as you're going to get until something revolutionary comes along. Is Star Citizen it? I have no idea and no one else does either. I certainly hope so and I hope that it succeeds well enough to make other publishers and dev studios sit up and take notice that there IS room for space-sims in this industry. If there can be a frackin' street-sweeping simulation, there can be kick-ass, open-world Elite-style space trading combat sims...

And speaking of Elite, you all are aware that there is a kick-ass patch/mod for Elite3 that brings it's graphics engine into the modern era, right? Just look for D3D Frontier Elite (FED3D) and the Java version also. I've been playing it on and off for months and it's just SO much better than the original graphics-wise plus there's a mod-loader app with many mods for it as well. Check it out if you itching for something else...

Flatline wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 17:54:And yet they're going to charge to get *into* the game.

I guess it's admirable he's trying to pull a Guild Wars 2 economy, but really, looking at those price points, it looks like a ship is worth like 7-80 bucks real money. And that's absurd.

Not necessarily.

Read this statement over again (from the blurb above):

Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either. Roberts says the game will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

Its full of contradictions. "Not free to play", "one time purchase", but you can "play in the universe for free".It will be MMO like because they assure us it "will not require a subscription". It will be F2P despite them saying not, because you can "play in the universe for free." Unless they are just going to let you make a character in a web browser to check it out or something. I dunno.And despite them saying "one time purchase" it says you can buy " items"

Dev wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:51:The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believeeveryone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.

Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.

Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.

And yet they're going to charge to get *into* the game.

I guess it's admirable he's trying to pull a Guild Wars 2 economy, but really, looking at those price points, it looks like a ship is worth like 7-80 bucks real money. And that's absurd.

The higher price points is only for if you want to give them more money. They need to give you some kind of advantage. It in no way means that that's the price of a ship.

Dev wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:51:The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believeeveryone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.

Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.

Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.

And yet they're going to charge to get *into* the game.

I guess it's admirable he's trying to pull a Guild Wars 2 economy, but really, looking at those price points, it looks like a ship is worth like 7-80 bucks real money. And that's absurd.

The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believeeveryone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.

Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.

Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.

Once i can actually land on a planet in the X series, then i'll take another look. As for Chris, i hope he pulls it off, i really do. I wont be supporting until theirs actually something to support other than a 5min movie. I'm not a fan of Chris's movies.